Google releases new Gingerbread OS, looking to capitalize on the success of Angry Birds.

Google released the Android 2.3 mobile OS, codenamed “Gingerbread.” The new OS is mainly focused on providing a richer multimedia capability for video, voice, and gaming apps. While there are a few new end-user features that come with Gingerbread, such as a new user interface and VoIP/SIP call support, most of the upgrades have been made on the back end for developers. The new SDKs give greater control over the Android OS, as well as offering a wide range of new tools and features for developers to create richer apps for the Android handset. The Gingerbread OS signifies Google’s intent to make Android phones more capable multimedia devices in the wake of new technologies available in the wireless marketplace.

Gaming and video calling applications have become dominant in the mobile app marketplace. Google’s release of Gingerbread keeps new Android phones up-to-date with the evolving landscape of these multimedia applications. Complaints about the lagging interface and jerky side scrolling have been addressed, and will be one of the first things that users will notice. But the main meat behind the release won’t be revealed until developers can figure out the new Gingerbread environment and start pushing out apps that leverage Gingerbread’s new multimedia capability. The new Gingerbread OS is a step in the right direction for Google, especially as it aims to take another chunk out of the smartphone market.